Peshmerga opens museum for confiscated ISIS explosive devices

The Kurdish Peshmerga forces have opened a small museum at one of its bases in the Kurdistan Region to exhibit some of the explosive devices it confiscated from the Islamic State which were used against them during battles.

“The museum was opened here in the Peshmerga engineering team office on the order of Commander Sihad Barzani,” Mahmoud Kakayi, a Peshmerga Commander of an engineering team, told Kurdistan 24 on Wednesday.

Commander Kakayi noted that the museum is not open to the public yet and that the location is temporary. He said once they find a permanent, larger site, more things would be added, and people can then visit the museum.

Safa Abdulla, a female member of the Peshmerga engineering team, told Kurdistan 24 the confiscated explosive devices were not only meant to target the Kurdish forces, but also civilians.

Abdulla pointed to an explosive disguised as a child’s toy which she said would have detonated immediately by a single touch.

The Peshmerga were one of the most efficient ground troops in defeating the Islamic State. When the extremist group emerged in 2014, and the Iraqi army collapsed, Peshmerga forces, with support from the US-led coalition, contained and pushed back the Islamic State threat in the north of the country.

About 2,000 Peshmerga have fallen while fighting the militant group and over 10,000 more were wounded, according to the Peshmerga Ministry.